Aoyagi, a Japanese engineer whose works during the 1970s prompted the advanced heartbeat oximeter, a basic apparatus in the battle against the novel coronavirus, died on April 18, 2020 in Tokyo, at the age of 84.

Heartbeat oximeter a lifesaving gadget that shows the degree of oxygen in the blood and is very useful in managing patients with COVID-19 symptoms.

A simple yet viable device, oximeters have proven to be useful in the treatment and management of COVID-19.

The oximeters are little clasp on gadgets that are ordinarily appended to a patient's fingers.

They have so far been utilised on individuals experiencing respiratory sicknesses, for example,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) , lung illness, asthma among others.

Oximeter can be used by patients to track their oxygen levels. Photo: Legacy.Source: UGC

Moreover, some COVID-19 patients seem not to have other symptoms.

As a result, when moderately or mildly ill patients test positive for the coronavirus, they may be sent home with a pulse oximeter so that they can track their oxygen level and return to the hospital if it drops.

Aoyagi's commitment to clinical science was based on many years of development and innovation.

In an article about Aoyagi, John W. Severinghaus, an educator emeritus of sedation at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote in 2007 that Aoyagi's "fantasy" had been to identify oxygen immersion levels without drawing blood.

His initial research attempted to gauge cardiovascular yield (the measure of blood the heart pumps), utilising a technique known as colour weakening, which includes infusing a patient with colour.

Rather than pulling back the blood downstream and estimating the centralisation of colour, he endeavored to utilise early oximeters, some of which were created during World War II to enable military pilots to inhale at high heights.

Those early devices, which were clamped to the ear, tended to be inaccurate, unreliable and cumbersome.

Aoyagi was however, fascinated by the underlying technology: using two wavelengths of light - red and infrared - to measure blood oxygen levels: (Hemoglobin, the protein in blood that transports oxygen, absorbs light differently when it binds with oxygen.)

But he soon ran into a problem.

Blood does not flow smoothly like an open tap, but pulses through the body irregularly, thus preventing an accurate recording of dye levels.

The problem, however, turned out to be an opportunity however.

By devising a mathematical formula to cancel out this “pulsatile noise,” he created a device that measured oxygen levels with greater accuracy than before.

Nihon Kohden applied for a Japanese patent for its pulse oximeter in 1974, with Aoyagi and a colleague, Michio Kishi, listed as inventors. It was granted in 1979.

The writer By Dr. Steve Adudans is the xecutive Director, Centre for Public Health and Development.

The views expressed in this opinion piece are hers and do not necessarily represent the position of TUKO Media Ltd in any way.

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